Brick Man Admits Role As Leader Of Massive Drug Ring

A Brick Township man is expected to receive a 16-year prison sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to being the leader of a drug ring that resulted in arrests of 25 men and women in multiple states in 2013, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office has announced.

Jeremy Zahn, 27, pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of being the leader of a narcotics trafficking network, financial facilitiation and two charges of eluding police before Ocean County Superior Court Judget Francis R. Hodgson, said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office. As part of the plea, Zahn will serve 16 years in state prison with an 8-year period of parole ineligibility. He also will be required to pay a $200,000 anti-drug profiteering penalty.

Zahn has been free since he posted $350,000 bail, no 10 percent, on Aug. 25.

Zahn was the lead defendant in the investigation dubbed “Operation Roadrunner.” The investigation began in August 2012 and culminated over a four-day stretch in April 2013 when police executed search warrants in multiple states and counties resulting in the arrest of 25 men and women on various drug, weapons and money laundering charges, Della Fave said. The search warrants were executed at homes and businesses located in Lakewood, Manchester Township, Toms River, Brick Township, West Windsor (Mercer County), North Caldwell (Essex County), and Tinton Falls.

As a result of the execution of the search warrants, Della Fave said, law enforcement authorities confiscated large amounts of marijuana, large quantities of MDMA (Ecstasy), prescription pills including oxycodone, Roxicet, Xanax, methadone and suboxone, large quantities of LSD and psilocybin mushrooms, multiple firearms, including a loaded Smith and Wesson .44 Magnum handgun, a loaded 9mm American Tactical pistol, a Weatherby 7 mm rifle, as well as approximately $91,000 in cash. Police also seized several bank accounts that were found to contain proceeds from this illicit drug network, one of which contained approximately $70,000 in drug proceeds, Della Fave said.

The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Special Operation Group, along with members of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Newark Division Asset Forfeiture Unit, also seized 15 vehicles as a result of this investigation, he said.